Interesting Facts About the NFL

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Interesting Facts About the NFL
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As an NFL fan, you know everything about your favorite teams, track the stats of the league’s top players, and can recite the most important plays in last year’s Super Bowl from memory. There’s likely little you don’t know about your favorite sport; after all, you live and breathe this game. 

The NFL’s 103rd season kicked off on September 8, 2022, and fans are enthusiastic as they’ve ever been, regularly checking the odds their local team will make the playoffs this year. Betting is one way football enthusiasts participate in the game from afar. Some of the biggest sports books listed on OddsChecker offer free bets to new customers to allow them to get a taste of the action. While most fans know a fair amount about the league, keep reading to learn a few facts you may not know.

Green Bay Packers Waitlist

While most NFL teams have an enthusiastic fanbase, few can outdo the Green Bay Packers fans. Like all teams, the Packers offer season tickets. The catch is the waitlist is exceptionally long. So long, you’d have to wait 1000 years to get a spot if you signed up today. 

Since the waitlist is open, you could add yourself to it if you want. It grows yearly, but it seems people still hold out hope that they’ll get lucky and score a season pass. 

Doug Williams’ Super Bowl Touchdown Passes

Doug Williams' Super Bowl Touchdown Passes
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Doug Williams took his place in NFL history when he threw four touchdown passes in a blowout victory for the Washington Commanders in Super Bowl XXII in 1988. They were three point underdogs against the Denver Broncos in the contest, but that didn’t matter once the game got underway. 

Since that fateful day, the Broncos have made the Super Bowl eight times and have the same number of touchdown passes as Williams completed over 30 years ago. Although the Broncos have won three Super Bowl trophies and had legendary quarterbacks on their roster, Williams’ extraordinary stands to this day.

Winning Back-to-Back Championships is Hard

The NFL is one of the most competitive sports leagues in the world, so it probably comes as no surprise that it’s not easy to repeat championships in consecutive years. It’s so rare that it’s only happened eight times in the NFL’s history. The Pittsburgh Steelers have done it twice. 

Super Bowl Losing Streaks

While winning consecutive championships is a great accomplishment, losing consecutively is a curse teams do their best to avoid. However, the Buffalo Bills are famous for making it to the big game four years in a row and losing each time. 

The Minnesota Vikings have also lost the Super Bowl four times, however, not in consecutive years. Instead, they were defeated four times in eight years. 

Measuring the Hand Size of NFL Players

NFL players are big guys, and the league takes measuring their hands seriously. Hand size is measured by having players stretch out their hand and measuring it from the tip of the thumb to the end of the pinkie finger. Having big hands is an advantage for players; the bigger the hands, the easier it is to grip and handle the ball. However, ultimately a player’s talent trumps hand size. 

Attendance Record at an NFL Game

The record for the largest number of people to attend an NFL game is 105,121 people, and it was set in 2009 at AT&T Stadium during a game between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys. The stadium’s capacity typically tops out at 80,000 spectators but can expand to hold over 105,000 people. 

While that’s a lot of people, college football still holds the record for attendance at a football game, with over 130,000 people attending the game between the University of Tennessee Volunteers faced the Virginia Tech Hokies in Bristol, Tennessee, in 2016. 

How Big is an NFL Field?

An NFL football field measures 360 feet long and 160 feet wide. There are 300 feet between the two goal lines, and the two end zones are 30 feet each.